The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1887-05-13
4 ROMANCE OF SLAVERY DAYS.

sion, / am gong to relate, had real
men and women for actors, and is
known to all the old-time residents in
and around Louisville. 1t presents one
of the most remarkable complications
of old slavery times that ever came
within my knowledge. and l am not
0~VeryOung.
Fifteen or twenty years before the
breaking out of our late civil war, a
young girl in her teens came up from
LouisiaQa and settled in Louisville, Civ
ing the name of Lizzie Carlton. Moth
ing more was known of her han that
she was accompanied BY a Young man
who was, or who pretended to be, deaf
and dumb, and who, after aiding her
TO secure a situation with Mrs. Will
hams a milliner and dreSSmakcr on
Fourth street, returned at once south
ward by river. Lizzie was 4 handsome
brunette. with 4 wealth Of raven hair
which almost swept the floor, bright.
expressive eyes, and altogether genteel
and dignihed in her general appear
ARce- Her ladylike department and
strict attention TO the interests Of her
employer soon made her super,ntend-
snt Of the establishment. Social bar
TierS were not so stubborn then us now.
and hence the Young and beautiful
stranger was soon received into the
best society. forming a number of
friends outside her regular business
patrons among others 4 Mrs. F.. a
prominent member of the Baptist
church, at whose house the dark-eyed
beauty was a ~frequeEt visitor. She n
time attached herself to that church.
becom ng 4 most exemplary member.
During her visits to Mrs. Z. our hero
inc met MIR. Philip s, himself one of
the pillars of the church, who, after
living in single-bieSSCdneSs for years.
enjoying all alone his wealth and fam
ny station, soon rece we'd a tender sell
timent for the young and beautiful Sis
ter, 1t was not long after the match
makers put their heads together til
Philip and Lizzie we're made one. The
marriage ceremony took place at the
Baptist church, then standing on the
corner of Fifth and Green, Rev, Mr..
Back officiating, and many old-timers
living to this good day will recall all
the facts exactly as l give them. After
the ceremony the bride and groom and
their friends repaired to Mr.. SIS resi-
dence, about ten miles from Louisville,
On the Bardstown pike, where the usual
wedding festivities were enjoyed.
The HONEYMOON, with other moons,
dripping with honey tsweeter than the
honeyeOmb,' waxed and waned. The
old bachelor happy IN the new world
thai dawned before him; the young
wife, with her back upon the past and
lis memories, was even forgetting thai
she had been a hard-worked milliner
In the struggle for bread.
ALAS that ever mans avarice and
brutality should break in to mar and
destroy a scene of happiness like this.
About sunset one afternoon the door
bell rang Lizzie-now Mrs. S,
III fs5T : bedside Aa was con-
6Ered TO his room by q slight illness at
the ameh arranged her toilet, and
descended Il the parlor.
.One piercing scream that startled
ne echoes around Mr.. s. who rushed
downstairs. What was his astonish-
nent and dismay to find his bride faint
ing on the floor, and q gentleman, at
tended By 3 uniformed policeman,
Standing over her.
= Sir, said she stranger, this woman
Is my slave. Her name is Melinda
Gzss. am q Louisiana planter; here
Is the bin Of sale. I fought her q few
@oasAas 55esEere 3 ESCAPED from NV
h0E7e, and | have been on hex track
ever since, and now she mnst return
with me.
The distress of the unfortunate
couple drew about them at once q large
c0ncourse Of their friends, who were
rs much st q loss what 10 advise in the
midst of these trange revelations as
we're the two most deeply concerned.
The husband, after the first paroxysm
ef his grief and modification, vowed
eternal fidelity to his wife, bond or
Tree, and with the assistance of Deacon
III, Rev. Mr.. Buck, ard others. it was
arranged that. in order to quiet mat
sers the Louisiana planter should be
indemnifed for the loss Of his slave;
and a little party of friends met to-
gether at the Gait house. where the
Lonisianian was paid 800 for COM
p~ensation and returned home
'.And this ends this strange, event
fnl historyep asked the reporter.
.By no means The worst is to
come. Mr. s.. being a man easily in.
nuenced BIZ his stronger-minded rela-
tires, was 50 beset By his ~uncles, his
cousins, his sisters. and his aunts that
he turned his young bride out Of doors.
They could not tolerate even = single
drop Of negro blood. however conceal
ga by q fair exterior. The poor, de-
serted wife went h~eathroke1 from place
10 place in the capacity as q seamstress,
and D gave birth to q son. She